Company Update: Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) – As the Yahoo! Turns: Post, Reuters Profile Verizon, SoftBank Interest

[at Barrons.com] – Shares of Yahoo! (YHOO) are down 19 cents, or 0.6%, at $37.12, in advance of a rumored deadline of this coming Monday, April 18th, for bids for the company to be submitted by supposed bidders such as Verizon Communications (VZ). Tabloid The New York Post’s Claire Atkinson writes that Verizon’s AOL unit’s director, Tim Armstrong, who was CEO when that company was bought by Verizon last year, is going up against Softbank (9984JP) president Nikesh Arora, who like Armstrong, was formerly with Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google unit. Atkinson presents the two as being locked in a “high stakes game of brinksmanship.” She writes that one unnamed source has said Armstrong doesn’t “have support for a very high bid,” and that Softbank’s Arora is interested in buying all of Yahoo!, not just the “core” advertising business, but also the minority stakes in Alibaba Group Holding (BABA) and Yahoo! Japan (4689JP). Read more on this. Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) , valued at $209.88B, started trading this morning at $51.28. Shares have traded today between $51.24 and $51.55 per share with a one year range of $38.06 to $54.49. VZ shares are currently priced at 12.89x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry’s 3.61x earnings multiple. And for those looking to make a return holding the stock, the company pays shareholders $2.26 per share annually in dividends, yielding 4.33%. In a review of the consensus earnings estimate this quarter, 26 sell-side analysts are looking at $1.06 per share, which would be $0.04 better than the year-ago quarter and a $0.01 sequential increase. What we find to be interesting is that the full-year EPS estimate of $3.98 is a $0.01 worse when compared to the previous year’s annual results. The quarterly earnings estimate is based on a consensus revenue forecast of the current quarter of $32.51 Billion. If realized, that would be a 1.66% increase over the year-ago quarter. Recently, Bernstein downgraded VZ from Outperform to Mkt Perform (Apr 7, 2016). Previously, Jefferies downgraded VZ from Buy to Hold. The average price target for VZ shares by the analysts covering it is $51.81, which is 1.03% above where the stock opened. See more in (NYSE:VZ) Similar Articles: Stock Update: Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) – As S&P 500 Turns Positive, Top Sectors Are Also Highest Yielding Stock Update: Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) – How Could Verizon Benefit from XO Communications Transaction? Company Update: Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) – Yahoo! (YHOO) Stock Rises on Possible Verizon Bid